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Staff Writer

I was initially very sceptical about this book, I like both Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel a lot, but the concept of an all-female X-Men comic just rubbed me the wrong way and takes me out of the story. There is almost always no compelling in-story reason (unless the villain is like a dick-vampire or can only mind-control men or something stupid like that) for it to be just women in the cast, and it becomes clear that this comic is written chiefly to play to a certain segment of comics fandom. And before you say it, I’d think the same thing about an all-male team book (even though there are no all-male teams, the closest I can think of is the Challengers Of The Unknown, and even they have June Robbins and the original Defenders, who are of course a non-team bound together by magic).

I just think that true diversity comes from people of different genders and races and sexualities and whatever mixing together and working together, not putting the women in a separate book.

But whatever, the X-Men have some of the best female characters in comics, and most of them are featured in this book, which is both well-written and well-drawn, so we’ll leave the sociology aside for now. The focus of this first issue is Jubilee, who last I heard was a Vampire, but whatever, she’s back here and for some reason she’s on the run with a baby. The X-Men come to her aid (and like I said, there’s no reason why no male X-Men are involved, the all-female cast could actually be a distraction unless they do involve a dick-vampire), and the revelation of who the villain is was hugely pleasing to me.

I love it when X-Men writers go back and pick up on the many tantalising, insane concepts that Grant Morrison left in New X-Men that were immediately dumped when he left, and in this issue Wood has only gone and brought back Sublime! And not just Sublime, but his even-worse sister, Arkea, who was hiding inside of Jubilee’s baby and has now possessed the body of Sentinel Prime, who I vaguely remember from Mike Carey’s run. I guess Arkea could be the reason why this book is ladies only, the opening page is a big spiel about how the male Sublime cast out his sister.

This was a very enjoyable issue, each of the main characters was well-utilised and Wood’s dialogue was very strong indeed. I am a huge fan of Olivier Coipel and his art was just fantastic here too. I think he’s a good choice for this title, because whilst his female characters are attractive, he varies the body types so not everyone is a big-boobed amazon. So yeah, this was a good comic in an X-Men line that is already over-stuffed with goodness. I suppose it makes sense for this book to find someway to differentiate itself from 5 other X-Men titles, but still, it being only women is slightly strange. At least it’s one X-Men book that won’t be dominated by Wolverine! What’s that? He has a female clone? Nooooooooo!

Staff Writer

I was initially very sceptical about this book, I like both Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel a lot, but the concept of an all-female X-Men comic just rubbed me the wrong way and takes me out of the story. There is almost always no compelling in-story reason (unless the villain is like a dick-vampire or can only mind-control men or something stupid like that) for it to be just women in the cast, and it becomes clear that this comic is written chiefly to play to a certain segment of comics fandom. And before you say it, I’d think the same thing about an all-male team book (even though there are no all-male teams, the closest I can think of is the Challengers Of The Unknown, and even they have June Robbins and the original Defenders, who are of course a non-team bound together by magic).

I just think that true diversity comes from people of different genders and races and sexualities and whatever mixing together and working together, not putting the women in a separate book.

But whatever, the X-Men have some of the best female characters in comics, and most of them are featured in this book, which is both well-written and well-drawn, so we’ll leave the sociology aside for now. The focus of this first issue is Jubilee, who last I heard was a Vampire, but whatever, she’s back here and for some reason she’s on the run with a baby. The X-Men come to her aid (and like I said, there’s no reason why no male X-Men are involved, the all-female cast could actually be a distraction unless they do involve a dick-vampire), and the revelation of who the villain is was hugely pleasing to me.

I love it when X-Men writers go back and pick up on the many tantalising, insane concepts that Grant Morrison left in New X-Men that were immediately dumped when he left, and in this issue Wood has only gone and brought back Sublime! And not just Sublime, but his even-worse sister, Arkea, who was hiding inside of Jubilee’s baby and has now possessed the body of Sentinel Prime, who I vaguely remember from Mike Carey’s run. I guess Arkea could be the reason why this book is ladies only, the opening page is a big spiel about how the male Sublime cast out his sister.

This was a very enjoyable issue, each of the main characters was well-utilised and Wood’s dialogue was very strong indeed. I am a huge fan of Olivier Coipel and his art was just fantastic here too. I think he’s a good choice for this title, because whilst his female characters are attractive, he varies the body types so not everyone is a big-boobed amazon. So yeah, this was a good comic in an X-Men line that is already over-stuffed with goodness. I suppose it makes sense for this book to find someway to differentiate itself from 5 other X-Men titles, but still, it being only women is slightly strange. At least it’s one X-Men book that won’t be dominated by Wolverine! What’s that? He has a female clone? Nooooooooo!

Rain Partier

I don't know WTF Punchy was reading, but this was anything but well-written. A complete poop sandwich only mildly attempted to be redeemed by Coipel's art. Dropped immediately...what a fucking turd of a book.

Rain Partier

I don't know WTF Punchy was reading, but this was anything but well-written. A complete poop sandwich only mildly attempted to be redeemed by Coipel's art. Dropped immediately...what a fucking turd of a book.

P&#1062;&#1048;K&#1063; &#1042;&#1071;&#1025;&#106

e_galston wrote:why should it be called x-women?? for decades all of the characters have been called X-Men, so just because now they are on a squad with no men they can no longer be called X-Men???

Because there are no men, and for decades women have been arguing that the term 'men' in reference to people should be replaced with 'person'. These are supposedly modern women who you would think would support that change.

They didn't change it because fanboys are less likely to buy a book with 'women' in the title, or they don't want to disrupt the numbering continuity.

P&#1062;&#1048;K&#1063; &#1042;&#1071;&#1025;&#106

e_galston wrote:why should it be called x-women?? for decades all of the characters have been called X-Men, so just because now they are on a squad with no men they can no longer be called X-Men???

Because there are no men, and for decades women have been arguing that the term 'men' in reference to people should be replaced with 'person'. These are supposedly modern women who you would think would support that change.

They didn't change it because fanboys are less likely to buy a book with 'women' in the title, or they don't want to disrupt the numbering continuity.